Friday, May 31, 2013

It's now easier to log in to your
Banner Self Service account. ITS has performed an upgrade that
allows the Manhattan College community to log in with their Jaspernet
ID and password. This is the same login that you have been using for
many other services such as email, moodle and the portal.

For now the old method of using your
Campus Wide ID and PIN can still be used, but will be phased out over
time. If you do log in “the old way” there will be no difference
in functionality.

During this transition period the same
Self Service login page that you have always been using will give you
two options to log in. The “the new way with your Jaspernet ID and
password” or the “old way” with your campus wide ID and pin.

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Google has announced that they are combining Gmail and Drive Storage. Initially Gmail had 25GB of storage and Drive had 5GB. Now you will have a combined 30GB to be shared by both services. This allows for greater flexibility so that you can put your storage where you need it.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Work has resumed to complete the campus telephone system upgrade. While some work was done during Spring Break, plans to complete the upgrade had been deferred to the end of the semester to avoid interruptions. Technicians will be on-site the week of 5/28 to prepare wiring and system components. We expect end-user office telephone handset replacements to start the week of 6/3. Subsequent announcements will be posted as a timeline is developed and each area is designated for telephone handset replacement.

In general, the deployment schedule will designate one building per day for telephone handset replacement. During that designated time, users should expect interruptions in telephone service in the affected building. Please review the post-upgrade steps posted at the telephone upgrade website http://www.manhattan.edu/phone which includes checking your “old” voicemail and configuring your new voicemail box.

Please be on the lookout for new messages in the coming days that will detail the final upgrade plans. The same information will be posted at the telephone system upgrade website - http://www.manhattan.edu/phone

Friday, May 17, 2013

After ten months of planning and testing ITS is ready to perform our long awaited Banner system hardware refresh. Like many things we do behind the scenes in RLC the end user impact should be as small as possible, and aside from some downtime to move the database to its new home our goal is that the negative impact on the Manhattan College Community is minimal if not non-existent.

Why is ITS doing this?

Simply put, it is time to replace some old hardware that is fast approaching end of life. We tend to replace servers on a three to five year cycle. After three to five years the reliability of server hardware begins to significantly diminish while the cost to own and operate can rise with respect to service costs, power consumption, and the lost hours of productivity we need to maintain aging hardware.

Why is this good for the college?

Aside from our critical Banner system being on newer more reliable hardware several opportunities were available to us during this refresh that were not in our previous generation. We have moved most of our Banner systems and other servers to a virtualized platform. This has led to cost savings hardware, power and cooling in the server room as well as being more centrally monitored and managed. We are also transitioning our databases to Red Hat Linux which helps us consolidate our expertise for more efficient troubleshooting.

What do I need to do?

If you or your office use the Banner System we will be contacting you. ITS will be compiling testing procedures for all departments to ensure that after the upgrade is completed everything you do will “Just Work.” We will need help compiling these lists and running through testing but we will not inconvenience you more than we absolutely have to.

If there are any issues at any time that ITS may not know about or that you feel are not being properly addressed please do not hesitate to contact us by emailing bannerhelpdesk@manhattan.edu. This will create a helpdesk ticket as well as forward directly to several ITS administrators.

For those very few things that don’t just work, we will be providing heavily augmented support for the two weeks after the upgrade. Some of you may be familiar with our “Banner Hotline” that we have used in the past after upgrades to route users directly to Level 3 support for Banner issues. We will again use this system so that if something is not working properly you have direct access to the ITS personnel who will be troubleshooting your issue.

Thank you in advance for all of the time and hard work that will go into this major initiative and as always we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

You can now attach files to your emails via Google Drive. The beauty of
Google Drive is that it allows for easy collaboration. There is no
longer a need to worry about edits getting lost due to multiple editors
working on a passed around file. With Google Drive multiple editors can
work on the same exact document at the same exact time and all edits
are tracked. You can even see your colleague typing as you do!

Google Drive also gives access control. Only users that you grant
access to can see the file. So your email can be forwarded, but unless
you grant access or your collaborator does, the file can not be
accessed.

As part of the Google Drive attachment function, before sending the
email, the attachments will be scanned to see if the people to which you
are sending the file have access or not. You will then get a warning
if they do not have access and you will be asked if you wish to grant
access or not. For more information on how to send an attachment via
Google Drive please click here.

Monday, May 13, 2013

Physical Plant was able to quickly restore power to the ITS network equipment in Leo. All networking and internet access to Leo and Mahan should be back to normal. If you are experiencing any further issues please contact Client Services at x7875.

ITS is currently troubleshooting a network issue affecting the LEO and Mahan buildings. Network equipment is offline in these buildings due to a power issue. ITS is working with the physical plant department to restore power to network equipment in the affected locations.

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Whether or not you attended the Technology Showcase this year, we would
really appreciate your feedback. We will be planning future Showcases
and want to make them as valuable an experience as possible to you.
Please take a few minutes to take this brief survey. Click here for the survey.

The issue that our Internet Service Provider had earlier this afternoon
has been resolved. If you are still having network related issues,
please email its@manhattan.edu or call x7973 so that we can assist you.

Due to an issue that our Internet Service Provider is having we are currently experiencing a
network outage. This outage affects our connection to the internet.
Internal services such as Banner, Moodle, and MyMC should not be affected. We are working to
resolve this issue as quickly as possible.

After clicking the Compose button, click the “new compose experience” link at the top of the message.

If you change your mind, you can temporarily switch back to Gmail’s previous experience. Open the Compose window, click the More options icon, and select “Temporarily switch back to old compose.”

A closer look at some changes...

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Entering addresses

Enter addresses as usual in the To field (labeled Recipients when you’re not adding addresses).

While adding addresses, click the Cc or Bcc link to display fields for entering those recipients, too.

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You can even drag recipients between fields.

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Finding the right contacts

If the contact you want doesn’t show up in the autocomplete list, you can click To, Cc, or Bcc to open a dialog for selecting contacts. Choose My contacts or All contacts from the drop menu or enter a query in the Search bar to narrow your results.

Check
the box of each contact you want to add to your message (addresses you
select appear at the bottom of the dialog). When you're done, click Select to add the addresses to your message.